Nicki Temple
by ClumsyCassandra
Summary: Year 2034. Nicki Temple age 18 is starting work at the ARC. How much trouble can it be being a teenage genius fighting dinosaurs for a living? Then there are the protective parents, annoying team mates and the mysterious guy that broke into the ARC for some unknown reason. Still got old characters-read to find out how Connor and Abby's daughter survives working at the ARC!
1. Chapter 1

Chapter one

Year 2034

Nicki Temple was in the control room, describing her latest fantasy/supernatural book with her Aunt Jess when her phone beeped signalling a message.

She kept babbling on about the different characters and their powers as she pulled out her phone, Jess didn't notice as she concentrated on the ADD (Anomaly Detection Device) in front of her, only half paying attention to the young girl.

Nicki was always talking about new books and stories, she was as obsessed with fantasy as her father was with sci-fi, it was rather endearing most of the time but got a bit annoying after a while.

Nicki looked briefly at the message on her phone and noticed immediately that something was wrong, the bright red message blinking on the small screen was from her computer.

Months ago when she'd had nothing to do she'd created a program that she could install into her security controls in her lab here at the ARC.

The program detected who was in the room by their Bio-bracelets, everyone at the ARC had one, and sent a message to her phone of who had entered the room.

Originally the program was so that she had proof for when Nathan Anderson had messed with something in her lab or so she knew when her parents were looking for her.

But at the moment it wasn't Matt and Emily's annoying son or one of her parent's names that flashed on the screen it was the confusing and rather scary words of 'UNORTHORIZED PERSONEL'.

"Jess, check the CCTV camera for my lab, hurry." She said shoving her phone back in her pocket and looking at the screens intently.

Jess gave her an odd look but her fingers were still flying over the keyboard, and the picture of her small lab was up on the screen in no time. However it wasn't empty, and the person inside wasn't someone wither of the woman recognised.

"Who is that?" Jess asked, still trying to make out the figure of the man in black overalls. Nicki didn't waste any time in hitting the red button on the side labelled 'Intruder Alert'.

Jess sprang into action as alarms and red lights flashed above them both. Some of the few other workers looked around in confusion until Jess called over the intercom,

"Intruder alert all units to lab 7, west side of the building. I repeat all units to lab 7." From the other cameras popping up on the screen they could see as groups of soldiers flooded the corridors, all heading to one point, guns out at the ready.

Nicki hurried out of the control room and sprinted down the halls, dodging people every now and again, calling out apologies as she went.

She was breathing heavily, heart pounding in excitement as well as a hint of fear, in all her life she'd never seen anyone able to infiltrate the ARC, she wondered briefly who could've done it and why.

By the time she got to her lab though it was too late to get a clear look at the intruder.

Soldiers lined the hallway, two were dragging a man out by his arms, he was grunting in exertion as he tried to fight his way free and Nicki strained her neck past the stoic men in front of her to get a better look.

Groaning in frustration she tried to push passed but didn't get anywhere, then she caught sight of a familiar head of blond hair and called out,

"Mum!" Abby whipped her head around at her daughter's voice and pulled her on the other side of the wall of soldiers. "Who was it Mum, I just saw him on the camera before I pushed the intruder alarm."

"That was you?" her mother asked distractedly, still looking down the hallway where they'd taken the mystery man. "I don't know who he was but we gonna find out, don't worry." Nicki inwardly rolled her eyes, she wasn't worried, she just wanted to know who'd been able to get passed all the security.

"Come on Nick, why don't we go find out." And her mother lead her off down the hall.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Year 2034

There were a few interview rooms held in the ARC for any prisoners and such, they'd never been used while Nicki was at the Arc so she'd never really been in this part of the building.

Each room had an adjacent viewing room with one-way glass, exactly the same as used in police rooms. Bot her and her mum flashed their ID bracelets at the guard at the door and were allowed entry.

Inside the small viewing room was her dad and Nathan Anderson, looking through the glass into the interrogation room she could see Becker guarding the door from the inside and Matt sitting at a table with the intruder on the other side.

She could see him more clearly now, short dirty blond hair, long angular face, square jawline and high cheekbones, he was handsome she supposed and wondered what he'd look like if he wasn't currently glaring at the man across from him.

He was wearing the uniform of all soldiers in the ARC, black t-shirt and trousers with the ARC logo on the breast pocket of an equally black jacket.

"Jess is currently doing a search for him," her dad was saying to her mum. ", trying to find out who he is and who he's working for. He's not talking at the moment."

"How did he get in?" Nathan asked, it something Nicki was wondering herself.

"We don't know." Connor sighed.

"Do you think he's got any spy gadgets?" Nicki asked excitedly. "What about one of those new transmitter blockers, or a mouldable-metal lock picking device? I've always wanted one of those, they automatically mould to form any type of key they-" she was blocked of by her mother's exasperated sigh.

"Not now Nicki, we need to know what he was doing here."

"Well, yeah of course. I know that, I want to know what he was doing in _my _lab, he better not have touched anything though or I'll-"

"Nick, we need to know everything you've got in there, maybe we can find what he was looking for." Her dad said.

"How did he get so far through security though?" Nathan asked. "You would've thought he'd been caught earlier." He was surprisingly serious for once, his usual annoying personality gone.

"Oh, that was my new thing I'd been working on, I made it so whenever someone enters my lab-"she glared at Nathan at this point, "-I'd automatically get a text saying who it was."

"Well it looks like your little invention actually caught a criminal, Nicko." he laughed roughing her hair up, she jabbed him with her elbow for the nickname and for messing up her hair.

_So much for losing his annoying personality._

"Stop it guys," Abby's scolding voice sounded every bit of the mother she was. Jess then entered the room and walked straight over to the computer on the table in front of the viewing window.

"Ok, so his name is Ryan Grace, he seemed to be like a normal upstanding citizen until three years ago, he used to be a police officer before he quit. He now works for a company that sell security cameras and surveillance gear.

"He has a criminal record for suspicion of grand theft auto, breaking and entering and once even stealing a helicopter. The only problem was that nothing was ever proved; all evidence went missing or was seen as tampered with."

"So what's he doing here then?" Nicki asked, confused.

"That I don't know." Jess sighed.

"Ok, well I'm going to make sure he did mess anything up in my lab." Nicki said, heading to the door. She took one last look at the intruder, Ryan Grace, "Call me if you find anything else out."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Year 2034

Nicki came into work the next day and Jess immediately filled her in on what had been found out.

No one knew why he'd broken into the ARC but looking more closely at his criminal record all the places he had been suspected of breaking into were government facilities.

The files that had gone missing were classified ones, all on either the ARC or missing government agents. They couldn't figure out why he was doing all of this, just that whatever the reason he'd been planning the break in for a few years now.

He'd been moved from the interview room to a holding cell and Connor had given strict instructions to his daughter on staying out of that area of the building.

In reply she'd scoffed and said she had no plans of going there in the first place, she was telling the truth of course and had spent her morning in her lab, working on the creature detector while Rex chattered happily, and wondering why Ryan Grace had entered _her_ lab of all things.

Most of the equipment used in the field was in there, the locking device, the dating calculator, the anomaly detector.

Nicki was always constantly messing with them and upgrading them into smaller models or so they had finer tuning to them. He could have been after any one of these things, they were all pretty valuable.

By lunch time she'd had enough of her wondering thoughts and decided to visit her mother in the menagerie, Rex would be glad of some company as well.

She'd had the lizard with her since she moved out of her parent's house and into her own flat six months ago. He liked to roam her apartment and was quiet happy to fly around the ARC when she was at work.

He'd gotten into trouble a few times for knocking things over but had learned to stay out of other people's way and to follow Nicki where ever she went.

As she approached the door to the menagerie office she saw her mother through the window.

Abby was stroking a small mouse/rat thing with black stripes running across its back.

It was no more than a foot long including the tale and was actually rather cute. Nicki entered the room and Abby immediately looked up at her,

"Hey Mum, who's this little guy." She smiled softly.

"This little _girl _is an Eomaia from the earlier Cretaceous, her name is Maya and… I think she's pregnant." Abby said, feeling around the small mammals stomach.

It squeaked slightly in panic as Rex flew into the room and landed on the table, but calmed down again quickly as Nicki scooped the reptile into her arms and held on tight. Abby sent a disapproving look to her daughter and she apologised.

"So what are you doing here then?" Abby asked as she finished off the exam and put the animal in her cage. Nicki let Rex fly free once Maya was safely away.

"Rex was getting a little lonely so I thought he could use some company, where are Sid and Nancy anyway?"

"In the garden." She stroked Rex and nodded toward the door leading to the main part of the menagerie.

About twelve years ago the government had finally gotten to setting up an actual living area for the prehistoric creatures.

Each had their own environments that were temperature and climate controlled and even filled with some plants and vegetation from their own time.

Abby had helped with the whole design and new technology had also paid a huge part, everything about the climates were artificial, it was too risky to have them actually outside so fresh air was pumped through ventilation shafts and specialised lights provided a replica of the sun.

"So what are you really doing here Nicki?" her mother asked pointedly. Nicki shifted uncomfortably before breaking,

"I was thinking about what that Grace guy was doing breaking into my lab. All the equipment in there is really important and I can't narrow it down to one thing. And what would have happened if he had gotten a hold of it, I thought security was meant to be all 'top notch'-"

"Nicki, he didn't get anything so don't worry and yes, security is as tight as it possibly could be. You're Dad told me it was you're little security system that caught him though. Nicki, if it wasn't for you god knows what he could've gotten a hold of."

Nicki sighed uncomfortable, not wanting to admit the thing that had been bothering her the most until it finally broke free.

"I know, it's just I had the anomaly opening device in there as well. What if he'd gotten that, you and Dad have told me what happened in the past with that kind of equipment-Helen nearly destroyed the human race and you and Dad were stuck in the Cretaceous for a year. Danny was stuck jumping from anomaly to anomaly for nearly two years!"

Nicki sighed in frustration, rubbing at the back of her neck. _Just like her father,_ Abby thought,_ blaming herself for everything._

"Nothing happened, Nicki. And we know you wouldn't be reckless with technology like that, we've drilled it into you exactly how dangerous it is dozens of times and you've taken massive precautions to ensure nothing like that happens again."

It was true, when nearly a year ago Nicki had told her parents she wanted to create the anomaly opening device her parents had immediately shut down all of her ideas.

Nicki had grown up hearing the stories of her parent's job and everything that had happened.

When she was sixteen she'd hacked into the ARC's computer system and read every file they had on every anomaly that had opened.

She understood why her parents were so against the idea and took some time to gather her ideas, after a while of explaining why she wanted to do it her parents talked with Lester and they all set some strict guidelines for her work.

The device would have to be password protected; only the minimum amount of people would have access to the machine.

Nicki had agreed to this and when Lester mentioned anyone who knew the passwords would be a target to any 'bad guys' after the device, she insisted she be the only one who knows it.

Her parents had argued and Nicki allowed her father to be the only other person with the passwords.

The other rule was something Connor had decided on after a long night of numerous calculations and theories.

New Dawn had ripped apart time and space by opening the first anomaly in a place where there wasn't meant to be one.

By only opening anomalies where there had previously already been an anomaly it should be safe enough to open without there being any other side effects.

Nicki had agreed to this as well and thought about the map Nick Cutter had been creating before his death.

The map would show where every anomaly was and with enough work she should also be able to tell what year they go to. The only thing was that recreating that map would take years and years of work.

"Everything's fine Nicki." Abby said, enveloping her daughter in her arms and resting her chin on her head. "We agreed then that if you kept to the rules this shouldn't back fire and could save a lot of lives." Nicki nodded her head against Abby's chest.

"I know." She said quietly. "It's just sometimes it really hits me how dangerous it could be in the wrong hands." Her mother stroked her dark hair and placed a comforting kiss on top of her head.

"Everything's going to be just fine, sweetheart." Abby stepped back and picked up the small cage she'd put the Eomaia in.

"Now, I've gotta go put this girl back home. Take Rex to visit Sid and Nancy and I'll see you later. And make sure they don't get out!" she called as she entered the door to the make shift Cretaceous period pens. She headed to the Permian ones where Sid and Nancy would be.


End file.
